


Pride

by warschach



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Australian Levi, Awkward Flirting, Dad eren, Eren has a Southern accent, Eventual Smut, F/F, F/M, Family Fluff, Father-Daughter Relationship, M/M, Mike makes shitty cat jokes, Parenting the Jaegerway, Pride Dynamics, Shapeshifting, Supernatural Elements, Were-Creatures, Werelion! Eren, Weretiger! Levi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-12
Updated: 2015-10-12
Packaged: 2018-04-26 01:17:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4984252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/warschach/pseuds/warschach
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren trades in Louisiana's swamp and humid climate for the Colorado's Rockies and when he enters his first official pride, he has a bit of catching up to do. What with Isabel growing as her own woman and his over protective lion's instincts wishing his cub would stay his little baby for century. Then there's the pride's prized tiger, Levi, making Eren quake in all the right places too. Safe to save, Eren got more than wild child to keep his attention.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pride

**Author's Note:**

> consider this my "Return of the Jedi" fic from my unofficial break.
> 
> -this was supposed to be a 15k one shot, you see how well that went. its a monster. i decided to post the halfway point or this thing would fester slowly in my docs for months.
> 
> -part 2 may/or may not be just as long
> 
> -i play with dialects and Australian slang for the first time (be gentle)
> 
> -don't fret too much on the OC, she very minor in this and has a few scenes. but she is mention throughout the fic in small bits. i couldn't find anyone to be Isabel's mom who at least kinda look like her and i didn't want the typically mom died or ran off trope.

> _Big wheels keep on turning_   
>  _Carry me home to see my kin_   
>  _Singing songs about the south-land_   
>  _I miss 'ole' 'bamy once again and I think it's a sin_

_\- Sweet Home Alabama, Lynyrd Skynyrd_

 

“Sorry. I just got called in. Mary’s out sick and the new girl’s still learning the ropes,” Dawn explained, winded, clearly she’d left her place in a rush.

The screen door banged with her hasty arrival, the car loitered in front, expending gas from the exhaust pipe like a steam engine. Dawn’s called came not to long after he left work.

Eren took the exuberant redhead in his arms, arms failing and thrashing excitedly like a pup presented with a ball. “It’s- ow! Cher, you’re pulling on daddy’s hair. Anyway , it ain’t no trouble. Ma can’t seem to get enough of her. ”

“Big kitty!” She exclaimed and Eren tensed, looking for a change on Dawn’s face but the woman was too absorbed dropping Isabel’s baby bag, filled with clothes, snacks, toys, to really react.

Weariness weighed down her face. “Dat’s all she hollers when I bring her here. Yer mom get a cat or somethin’?”

Eren exhaled in relief and shifted Isabel on his hip, slinging the baby bag to his shoulder. He didn’t have the nerve to tell her it wasn’t any regular alley cat that their baby girl was fussing about. “Probably a stray. Ya know my ma, if she had her way no cat would go unfeed in the whole parish.”

Dawn pursed her cherry red lips and teased up her hair in the glass reflection, resembling a beaver’s den more than anything else. “Try keeping her away from dem, yea? Those things could have rabies. “

Eren knew better than to argue with Dawn; she was a stubborn mule most days and being rushed at the last minute made her into a tyrant. Cooperation won out.

“Will do.” Happy giggles colored the air when Eren bounced his baby up.

She leaned over and pecked Isabel on the cheek. “Alright honey. Momma gotta work tonight. I’ll be back in the mornin’. Listen to yer daddy.”

Eren was shot with a look that said _no more Pepsi for her or I’ll sting your by your balls_.

“Bye mommy.” The little girl waved.

And with that, Dawn went, hauling down the wooden stairs with curling paint; her car departing with the spray of loose gravel and dirt and her taillights blurring into indistinguishable reds and whites.

Eren’s ear picked up the second Dawn’s car peeled off their driveway on to the main road. Living this far out from the town, hugged and nestled on all side by a lush thriving forest, Dawn had to burn rubber to make good time. That was a downfall of working as a waitress at one of the most frequented watering holes. The younger employees lived a night life as much as one could in such a closely knit town, leaving the full time workers like Dawn to pick up the slack.

 Safe for another day. He gave his daughter a fleeting glare that had zero effect on the five year old. She  bopped his nose then giggled when he grimaced.

“I thought you were gonna keep daddy’s secret, cher.”

“But I did,” she chirped and pulled on his hair. “Big kitty.”

“I dunno. Ya almost ratted me out,” he mused playfully. “I don’t think I should.” He pretended to ignore her quivering lips and welling eyes and the tiny balled fists slapping his chest. Working her up was too easy, well working any kid up was- then his own, that’s too much temptation for Eren.

“I’m sorry!” she shouted directly into his eardrum and he winced. “I swear ta da…ta da WHOLE wide world,” Isabel held out her pinky finger, “I’ll be extra, extra quiet.” The X was pitched loudly to communicate her seriousness.

He thought about it. “Extra, extra?” Her father smirked.

She bobbed her head and her pigtails loosened. “Yup, yup.”

“Deal,” he sealed their agreement and slobbered a messy kiss to her cheek causing her to squeal with disgust and bubbly laughter. “Now let’s sneak out before-“

“Eren!”

“Ah fuck,” Eren cussed, one foot out the front porch.

Isabel mouth popped into an perfect circle. “Oh. Daddy said a bad word.” Little snitch.

The stampede of marching flip flops approached at a terrifying rate. The rickety screen door whacked his forehead as he scrambled for freedom.

Carla pinched his ear and tugged him back into the foyer. “Give me my grandbaby.” She snatched Isabel and cooed motherly, giving her Eskimo kisses.  The trapped father soothed the red welt on his forehead.

Once Carla was finished laying obnoxious kisses on his daughter’s forehead, now smeared with her lipstick, Carla’s experssion turned sour as she regarded Eren. Queued lecture in 3…2…1…

“Ya know you have to tell her,” she lectured sternly in typical mother hen fashion.

 He climbed up to the landing, deposited Isabel’s baby bag in the corner, and ambled back down. “Yea, yea,” he shrugged and reached for Isabel.

Carla batted his hand. ”Don’t you ‘yea, yea’ me.”

“Ma.” Eren whined, failing to outmaneuver his mom.

“Listen, I didn’t say nuthin’ when you knocked up the Jezebel of Louisiana. But I’m puttin’-“

“-You still piss about that, ma? She meant nothing by it.”

“What kind of gurl takes the cooking away from the woman of the house ?” She countered, affronted by the memory of the grave trangression. The kitchen was his mother’s church- he earned her wrath he’d mixed up the spice cabinet.

“You said you wanted help.”

“I didn’t mean hers.”

He sighed. “Listen I’ll tell her eventually. Like… 50 years from now.”

“Smartass. You dunno when Belle will start shiftin’ and how’s her momma gonna react when she do.”

“You don’t know dat. She can be normal like Dawn.” He said and slumped on the floral embroidered sofa and sunk into the oversized cushions like a pebble thrown in a pond. Eren stared at the ceiling, cringing at the god awful wallpaper of wild flowers clashing with an ungodly shade of white, and hoofed when Carla dropped Isabel’s weight on his stomach.

“Shiftin’ in front of her too.” She clicked in disapproval. “I swear I dropped you one too many times on yer head.”

Eren flushed. “I-I change behind a tree! I’m not some weirdo.”

“Ya know that’s not what I’m talking about.”

“It makes her happy,” he admitted softly and rocked Isabel on his knee.

She twittered and threw her arms out to balance herself and pretended she was riding on a bucking stallion.

Carla smiled fondly at her son and took a seat beside him and brushed his bangs back. “Yer daddy did the same thing with you. He couldn’t get in the front door without you demandin’ a piggyback ride. And even after you got your way, you yelled at him whenever he shifted back. Told him he had to stay as a kitty all day.”

“What? No I didn’t.” His ear prickled with heat at the tale.

She tugged on his ear that he lazily swatted away. “Oh yes you did. I videotaped it all.”

When he didn’t reply fast enough, she ruffled his sweat damp hair. “I’m serious. Face the music, hun. Be a lot better than hidin’ all the time.”

“Ugh.” He groaned. “Don’t wanna though.”

“Tough shit.” She laughed, sipping on his misery.

“Good talk, ma.” Eren snipped bitterly when she slapped his thigh and straightened.

She made the talking motion with her hand at his compliant. “Bla, bla, bla.” His mother bent down to pelt her grandchild with a second round of kisses. “And I’ll see you later, missy. How about I fix you some hush puppies when you get back?”

“Yes, please.”

“I swear you’re nicer to her than me.”

“She ain’t a pain in my ass like you.”

“Number one mom.” He mocked with a finger matching the numerical value, it also happened to be his middle finger.

Eren yelped, too slow to avoid his mother as she grabbed his hand and sunk her teeth into his wrist. “Owowowow! Ma!”

Luckily the torture ended swiftly but a warning finger poked his forehead with malicious intent kept the stinging, spit slicked wound alive in his brain.

 “Keep it up.” The threat was thinly veiled with annoyance and admiration that only a parent could muster.

With his mother flip flopping nosily to the kitchen, Eren mulled over all the possible ways to out himself and his entire family as Weres (were-lions technically, but that shit sounded fucking stupid out loud), plus the minor, teeny weeny detail that Isabel may in fact be one too. That meant the normal hormonal changes that came with any growing child with the inclusion of all complications of being a lioness.  Somehow this was worse than presenting his parents with the news of additional Jaeger joining the household. Yea…this would not go down so well.

And you thought your kid was a handful.

 

 

[x]

 

 

The air felt sticky and wet on their skin like the residue of sweet fruit but that was Louisiana’s heat for you, horribly hot and disgustingly humid. A gentle breeze brushed the tips of grass and the blades danced majestically with the action.  He felt Isabelle stirred beside him, nuzzling closer to his side and using him like a wall to lean against.

“I’m gonna miss this,” she said distantly, an afterthought to herself.

But her father grunted his agreement to it. “I know, cher.” Sure the heat sucked ass and he came home emanating the smell of a sweaty pig but it was home.

“I don’t know a thing about Colorado,” she complained further, twirling a green blade between her fingers, threating to tear it from its roots.

“Stop that.” Eren swatted her hand gently. “I just mowed. You wanna make your Gran mad?”

“No.” The red pouted petulantly and the summer’s music began with the awakening of cicadas and crickets.

She looked deep in thought while the sun set her unmanageable auburn hair on fire. If raising a teenage daughter taught him anything, it was that her silence meant trouble was brewing in that thick skull. Sometime you didn’t need to think just act.

“It’ll be good for ya. And you got your old man taggin’ along.” Eren comforted her and kissed the frizzy tangles of strawberry.  The humidity made it extra voluminous to Isabel’s dismay.

Isabelle pulled away and tucked her sun-kissed legs inward. “What if…I dunno…no one likes me. Or if I can’t like fit in…Or like I fail everythin’.”

Eren stared at her, honestly perplexed where this sudden bout of insecurity blossomed from.  “You’re shitting me.”

“Dad.”

“I ain’t no college kid like you but I sure as fuck can bet you that what you just said is impossible.”

She glared at him but lost it to fondness. “Dat’s cause your my father. You’re supposed to like me.”

“Cher, I don’t like anyone but you and your Gran.” God’s truth and if no one liked his girl then they can go fuck themselves.

“Oh yea? What about aunt Sheryl? “She questioned.

“Lord in heaven, “he sighed melodramatically with a hair flip, “if there wasn’t a six pack of beer, your daddy would be hole up in the town’s cell, singin’ Johnny Cash renditions with Mr. Pixis.”

“Aunt Sheryl’s nice though.”

“To you. That woman hounds my ass worse than your mother.” He smacked his parched lips. “Speaking of beer, go grab some for your ole man.” He waved a hand to the three-store house behind them.

“What? No, you get it.”

“Now what’s the point of having kids if they don’t do your bidding?” Her father asked to the wilderness ahead of them.

“You’re only complainin’ cause you’re a lazy ass,” she said.

Eren frowned at her before eying the white porch that lassoed itself around the entire planation styled home; a relic from another time, each nail and inch of plywood hammered by the long Jaeger line that settled their roots decades ago. It was built same time prior to the Civil War or so his mother said. But it was old in that classical way that people loved and admired items from a world so different from the 21st century.

 The front door was a jarred to allow the cooling gust inside the house (his mother stuck to old fashioned box fans and the world’s natural air to keep the place cool). A/C  was something for city slickers who didn’t muster a tough adaption to the ungodly heat. The screen door was shut, a deep espresso that was stark next to the blinding white. But a thin mesh and a few feet from the door didn’t guarantee Carla wasn’t keeping a keen ear to their talk.

All women were gossiping hens and that was irrefutably true about southern women. Like bees to wild flowers.

 “What I tell you about cussin’?” He staged whispered once he was assured his mother, Isabel’s grandmother, didn’t over hear them. Just cause Eren was over the 30 mark and with a child of his own didn’t mean his own mother would cease all paternal lectures. If anything, they’d intensified.

“Do it when mom and Gran are 50 yards away?” she smirked at his nervous behavior.

“Dat’s right, cher. And she’s fixin’ pecan pie- I _love_ that pie. _Love,_ Belle. Don’t make me choose.” He spoke tersely but his daughter giggled at his stern expression, melting the sharp lines of his face.

She muffled her laughter when Eren creepily invaded her personal space and tickled behind her ear. Isabel tried scarpering away from Eren but the young girl was too slow to evade her dad from scoping her up like a five year old and laying down rapid fire. It was only her screeching screams that disturbed Carla and forced her on the porch. Her apron was a stained with the byproduct of today’s supper.

“Do I have to slap duct tape on both your mouths? Y’all going to wake the whole parish with that damn racket.” Carla groused and the two smiled shamefacedly at her austere glower.

Eren pointed at Isabel. “Yea, cher. Don’t you know Gran fixin’ us supper? Have some shame.”

Her grandmother rolled her eyes at Eren’s poor attempts to shift the blame. “Hush your mouth, Eren. Or I’ll come over there and whoop your rear.”

“But I’m 36,” he squeaked, having figured he was free from such a form of capital punishment.

“You could be 100 and I would still spank your ass, son.”

“Ooooh, you’re in trouble,” his daughter chuckled quietly into his throat and Eren mushed her into his chest to shut her up.

“Want me to show you?” Carla edged.

Hastily, Eren shook his head before the woman could take the first step down. “No, ma.”

She wiggled the wooden spoon in the air menacingly. “Supper will be done soon.  And your pa will be home and so is your baby mama. If you two plan on running, get it done now cause for the next three days we’ll be packing.” With that, she left the rustic screen door banging dangerously behind her.

That woman was a natural disaster in human form.

“Shit,” Eren cursed, recalling that he had invited Isabel’s mother over to discuss the financial arrangement involving their daughter’s college tuition.

Being the first of the many Jaeger generation, his little girl was going to get a proper education- having a kid at 18 did that to you. And the school was in Colorado, no less, states and miles away.  Even with the aid of her music scholarship, they couldn’t really afford the additional cost for room and board so Eren figured it was the best time to settle his roots elsewhere like he always dreamed.  It was the best option, Eren would be able to keep a close eye on their baby girl and cut the long term cost for room and board. Money would be clutch for a bit but Eren had a friend in Colorado who was more than willing to set him up with a job and a room till he got something to call his own.

Like a Meerkat scanning the skies for predators, Isabel’s head peeked from underneath Eren’s arms.  He already knew those pleading emeralds would tack themselves on him. “Daddy?” She asked so sweetly. Too sweet if you asked him.

“Nuthin good comes when you call me that.” He rubbed the line of his perpetual five o’ clock shadow.

“Please, please,” she threw her weight and swayed them both back and forth.

“I am a weak man,” Eren sighed upwards, begging the good lord why his daughter was a manipulative little shit.

Isabel leaped out his lap and tugged her lazy father to his feet, which he promptly fell back on his ass and waved the redhead away. “Get up!” She muttered and attempted to drag Eren across the lawn.

“Go on, cher. Daddy’s gonna die right here.”

“You are,” she huffed and pulled,” the laziest,” she stopped, caught her breath, “lion, ever.”

“I’m old.”

“You’re 36 for christ’s sake!”

“Belle,” he chided; eyes closed to the floating clouds and breezy wind but the sweat on his back chilled to arctic waters.

 Colorado didn’t have a one setting for temperature. They have winter over there and fall. A rarity for their parts, if it snow at all, it didn’t stick long enough to cause any real trouble. But folks still worked themselves silly over a single snowflake.

Unwilling to even endure the sight of the sun, Eren pivoted his screwed face. Direct sunlight hurt his eyes.  His sight was stronger at night away, plus his sense of smell wasn’t too shabby either for a lion. “’S too hot. And ‘m too lazy.”

She kneeled beside him and played his with shaggy mane, the touch first being gentle and soothing till her patience ran out. “Get. Up.”

Eren face planted when Isabel impatiently groaned and used her weight to roll them both over. She tumbled over his solid back and smacked her nose into the grass, howling with colorful expletives just like Eren did as a teen. Kids were weird miniature teacup versions of yourself.

He barked into the earth and took in a whiff of the fresh bleeding grass poking back in retaliation. “Ha, jackass.”

The sun did a terrific job of furthering tanning his already dark complexion and it shone down on his naked arms and slightly exposed nape. Work kept him in the elements, so a few more hours under it didn’t faze him in the least.  So while is melanin-challenged coworkers worked up a nice sunburn, Eren browned out nicely.

“I _do_ take after my daddy,” she spat back, exasperation and the summer heat flushed her cheeks.

There it was, one of those uncanny moments Isabel unwittingly mirrored her mother. Dawn was like that, feuding up with his antics.

Kind of hard to think they almost tied the knot, for Isabel’s sake, and not out of some silly notion that they loved each other. Not dissing Dawn, she was great, uh, when she wasn’t barking some shit at Eren, which was always. But that night together concluded cause he was drunk out of his mind, still in the dark about his sexuality; Dawn was hurting after a break up with her first boyfriend. A bottle of judgment diluting tequila and a shadowy tree in the woods and _bam!_ You had an unplanned teenage pregnancy.

Clothes crunched with movement and heat haloed the body next to him; pillowing his cheek on his forearm, he scrunched his nose at the carelessly pile of clothing. The number of times he needed to remind this girl to keep her shirt on was ridiculous.

Feather soft whiskers tickled his nose then it was quickly replaced with a rough, flat tongue. Untucking one of his arms, Eren found silky tawny fur in his palm and stroke.  Lions didn’t purr but if Isabel was a housecat, that girl would be a motorboat.

Black rimmed the lioness’ hazel irises highlighted the wild big cat eyes; the rays of light shrunk her pupils to tiny pits.

“What? Want a belly rub?” He laughed as Isabel buried her large skull under his torso, forcing him upright. “Argh. Alright, alright, cher.”

The lioness flopped into his lap and laid on her back, belly uncovered and big paws spawn outward. “Still my little cub, huh.” Fatherly love softened the striking pronounced lines of adulthood and brought back the sanded round, curves of youth.

 He felt a small twist in his chest at the realization that one day soon his little girl would stop being his baby. Eren stared down at the content lioness; she outgrew her adolescent size and was steadily reaching the weight and stature of an adult female lion.

Even though her weight dictated it and the pain of holding her was vivid in his head, he only saw a tiny cub, no bigger than a medium dog, with the pads of her toes squishy in the way all babes were.

This was his baby and he had no idea how he would ever let her go.

He would have sat out there forever if Dawn’s car hadn’t pulled up the make-shift drive way, which was really stamped down dirt and rocks, and a devious thought popped into his mind.  A grinned made itself known.

“Hey, Belle, how ya feel about giving your mom a few more grey hairs?”

The lioness was already slinking her form stealthy around the porch. Dawn let out a pitched shriek that he was sure only dogs and Weres like themselves could properly hear.

After composing herself, Dawn cursed Eren’s name straight to God and prayed lightning would lit fire under his ass.

 

[x]

 

Eren hopped out of his truck and bumped the door shut with his butt as he pulled on his work gloves. The black Silverado mounted the curb a bit but being an employee of the parish’s road crew for a sum of 15 plus years, his fellow workers hardly made a quip on his piss poor entrance. And their parish wasn’t exactly law-abiding either.

 Thirty minutes late, he really should’ve refused Belle after she insisted they marathon the entire Star Wars trilogy, old gene, mind you. School ended for her and that meant she stood true to the teenage motto of stay up all night and sleep all day.  Eren carried her to bed as he found her positioned quite comically on the couch; face down, one leg over the armrest and the other dangling. There may have been some drool on her cheek.

Sunglasses adjusted, Eren picked up a shovel from the back of his truck. Ymir was eyeballing him, prompted up by her shovel, the freckles that dotted her cheeks almost invisible against her olive complexion. Her orange and yellow reflective vest resting on her slender form nearly blinded him as the sun caught it.

The shade she was ready to spit could be spotted a mile away.

“Don’t even say it,” Eren warned her, throwing his weight quickly with everyone else. He wasn’t the type to stay idle.

“Must be nice to be the supervisor,” Ymir snipped with muted irate, the radio from the company’s truck trickled in between her words, “comin’ in whenever.”

At least it was shady for a hot minute; he didn’t bother retorting a defense. That kid card ran dry _years_ ago. Something vaguely popish tuned on the airwaves, probably that Lady Perry person, he thought.

 When Eren didn’t rise to her bait, Ymir barked at his back. “So you plan on cuttin’ and runnin’? Dat’s a rude way to dump me.”

He stomped his boot on the edge of the shovel and chucked the clunk of earth into the established piles. Sweat beaded on his forehead; the sun’s rays were as brutal as a hot poker.  Only 9 a.m. and the heat probably broke past 95. The end of his shift couldn’t come soon enough.

“What’re you yappin’ about?” Eren grunted distractedly, engrossed in hefting the heavy earth

Ymir sassed him with a skeptical eyebrow raise. He half expected that shovel to be used as a tool of reprimand against him.  “Really, honey-child?”

Their town didn’t have too many lesbians, at least one so open and with a devil on her shoulder, but Ymir handled the derogatory remarks and belligerent scrutiny projected her way. Once she clocked in to do work on the road, her usual colorful appearance was abandoned for the time till she went to her second job as a bartender. Then it was golden jeans and wild palettes of eye shadows galore.

Eren paused and squinted at her, the sun washing out his skin and blazing his eyes into brilliant emeralds. “Man, Dawn’s got a damn mouth on her.”

“She sure do, honey. Can’t believe you’d dare leave me alone with all dem hillbillies.” Ymir nagged.

Eren wiped the sweat that dribbled down his forehead, tucking his hat under his armpit as he used the hem of his shirt as an improvised rag. “Don’t forget yer one of those hicks too.”

“’Scuse me? My sexy ass ain’t anything like dem stanky ass rednecks.” She waved her hands as the mere thought offended her.

Eren chortled and struck the earth again; the rest of their crew pointedly ignored their colloquy, fairly accustomed to the two senior workers shooting the shit and talking trash.

“Oh. I’m sorry, Barry. You cool.”

Barry ducked his head from Ymir’s flirty eyes and drove his shovel into the soil. Gay or not, she loved to ruffled up the new blood’s feathers.

“Visit me then.” Eren suggested, dropping into the sizable hole.

“Boyfriend, does it look like I got the money foe dat?” Ymir questioned from her perched form on the rim.

“You have a lot of makeup,” he mumbled.

“That’s what we call a necessity. I don’t need to see yer ass.”

“Ah, you won’t miss me?” he teased.

Truth be told, he’d planned on keeping the move on the low until a few days before knowing full well the pit falls of living most of his life in a small town; gossip spreads faster than gators in the swamp. And he knew at least a few folks here that’d lay on the guilt trip thick.

Ymir dropped down next to him, her arbitrary break over; no one really timed the little breathers they would take. Technically, Eren could as supervisor but he had always been kind of loose on rules. Besides, who really gave a fuck, manual labor was hard work.

“I was gonna tell ya. Eventually.”

Ymir puckered her thin lips. “Uh huh. You a lying sag of shit, Eren.”

“I think you’re just mad Dawn told you first.”

“Y’know, Imma teach you a real good lesson, Jeager. And I gots the right idea.” Ymir suddenly speared her shovel with no permeable. “A party. A  little bon voyage for yer sorry ass.”

“No. Anything but _that_.” Eren pleaded.

 

[x]

 

At noon, Eren and Yimir drove over to Dot’s Bar and Grill for lunch.

They parked their rears at the furthest booth and waved over the nearest waitress, who happened to be Dawn. Aw, shit.

“Sweet Jesus,” she groused.

“Ain’t you ‘spposed to be working at 3?” Eren asked, grateful for the powerful A/C filtering in cool air.

Dawn put one hand on her hip and the other carrying a notepad and pen, cherry ringlets rain from her ponytail. “Pixis shifted my hours, now, what will it be?” She poised her pen for action.

He went over the laminated menu longer than needed, like most people in this town, he was a regular and had his own usual.

“BLT and coke,” he handed over his menu.

Ymir did the same, “Sweet tea and Bubba’s Jambalaya. Thank you, sweetness.”

“Good to see ya, gurl. I’ll get that for you right away.” The waitress toted away in a much chirper mood.

Eren could only watch in total disbelief and gaped at his retreating baby’s momma. “How you do that? She’ll always trying to bite my head off whenever I come in.”

“God put all that pretty on you to cover up your nasty mouth.”

“Whatever,” Eren grumbled. Dawn dropped off their drinks; she bided Ymir with some whispers of juicy gossip, made Eren totally feel like the third wheel since Ymir and him been friends since high school, then had the gall to blow off Eren when he huffed petulantly at the treatment.

The apple of Ymir’s eye trotted around the bar, a tray expertly balanced in her hands. She bent down delicately and placed the plates of steaming food on the table. The smile of her face was rehearsed when she left the customers to their meal but the one she wore as her eye’s landed on the brunette was sincere.  Christa’s rolled her eyes at the kisses blew to her across the room. Playfully, she stuck her tongue out.

Christa dipped back when her orders were called and Ymir stared longingly with a sigh. “One day that gurl is gonna be mine.”

He wondered if Christa would be the one to take his friend of the market for good. She had a horrible track record of short-lived relationships.

“You need to stop shitting when ya eat. At this rate, you’ll never be able to eat anywhere in this town.”

“Just cause yer ass can’t get any, don’t mean ya gotta be fussing in my business. ‘Sides, she the one dat started it. Totally made a pass at me at Holly’s baby shower.”

“Bullshit,” he refuted and dragged his beverage over on his side.

She shrugged. “Whateva. I know when a woman wants me.”

“And I can get a date,” he added belatedly, remembering the subtle implication from earlier. “But there’s dis thing called standards.”

“Hmm. Dat’s another word for picky. You know, you and me are the hottest piece of ass this town got to offer. No use wasting away for a hot thing. These are your golden years.” Ymir reached over and gripped his shoulders, a seriousness morphing her face so dramatically that Eren almost barked with mirth.

Once she relinquished him, he shook his head. “I wonder if you’re really a woman sometimes.”

“When was the last time you fucked someone, Eren?” Ymir snatched up her tea and snipped cocksurely at Eren’s brilliant blossoming, carbonated bubbles suffocating him till he pounded oxygen back into his chest.

“Christ!” His eyes widened incredulously. “Something’s up with your head.”

“Answer the question.” Ice churched in her mouth, slurring her cadence slightly.

Eren scratched his jaw, feeling the stubble he had forgotten to shave in his morning rush. “Dunno. Like um, eight-um-teen months. A frat guy from Shreveport.”

Man, did her eyes _pop_ right out of her skull. “Legal,” he shouted because he knew all the directions this minx was taking.

His friend whistled, impressed, an infernal smirk curled her lips; an unrequired congratulatory slow clap drew everyone’s gaze to their table. Sadly, none of the object near him could grant him a swift and clean death from this.

 “Look at ya, a bona-fide cougar. Dem genes did you well.”

Growing bored quickly, the customers in the bar and grilled turned back to their own discussions once Ymir ceased all forms of celebrations.

“Not like I make a habit of it.” Eren looked caught between shame and pride.

It wasn’t like the guy was under age or anything and they were both sober enough to consent to it and use protection. But he did feel a bit like a cradle robber after it. Didn’t help that the young college student started moaning _daddy_ halfway through but the power of boners was way s _tronger_ than his aversion to the kink.

“Betcha use the diltf card too. Hot dads are all the talk these days.”

Eren rolled his eyes and sponged away the water ring from underneath his sweating glass with his napkin. “Na, we’re talkin’ about you. Not me”

“Uh huh.” Ymir hummed, swirling the cubes in her tea and sipping loudly. “Point is you need somebody polishing your alter.”

“Good god, Ymir,” he rubbed the temples’ of his head.

 Luckily at this point Dawn came back with their order and Eren had a good excuse to abort this tentative conversation about the lack of dick/vagina in his life.

 

 

[x]

 

So Ymir threw a party. No, actually, she convinced the entire town to conspire against Eren. Because this wasn’t a mere get together with his family and the few people he legitimately called friends; everyone was here. Every. Single. Person.

Eren sulked in a private dark corner amid the thriving and bumping party right outside of Pixis’ Bar and Grill. Folk’s third fucking cousins and sisters twice removed were in damn attendance at his farewell party. He didn’t know half of these faces and he was sure a few of them came from the high school he graduated years ago. At least most were kind enough to bless him with “gonna miss ya, man”. Crazy Henry brought him a bottle for the occasion. If he ignored his festering rage and the swift plummet of his patience, then this was all super nice. Almost thoughtful if he was pushing it. And he was.

“Eren!”

There went his few minutes of special time. He was already making his way back to his mother. Red solo cups collected on top of the checkered pattern table cloth. She seized his hand the minute he was in touching distance and sniveled drunkenly.

“How many did you let her have?”

His father blinked up and shrugged noncommittally with a tiny shoulder roll, courteously drinking some lemonade, fine as peach while his wife mourned the loss of their son.  “Your mother is trying to adjust.”

“Eren! Eren, why are ya leavin’ me? A-Are you mad at me?!” Carla attempted to stand but wobbled back down. “Is it cause-“she hiccupped, “-cause I stopped making whole cakes? I’m sorry. I love you, Eren. ‘ll make ya all the whole ya want. Yo- you don’t gotta work. Momma will take care of you foreva.”

“She’s fucking hammered.”

“She’ll be fine,” his father dismissed. “This is nothing compared to last time.”

“Last time? How often does dis happen?”

Grisha stopped eating. “I think when you had Isabel?” He turned to his wife and asked her, she sucked up snout loudly and thought over it then nodded with a new wave of tears.

“Yer taking my baby gurl away too,” she blubbered, using Eren’s shirt as a tissue wipe.

Eren sank to his knees so he could pat his mother’s back, a bit rigid as hard candy. Jaegers were a strong sort; that went double for his mother, so her hysterical and honest feelings overwhelmed him.  “Ma, ma, ma. We’ve talked about this, remember?”

His mother rambled incoherently, all words masked and distorted with alcohol and despair. Father Jaeger still lounged in the plastic chair, refusing his unspoken pleads for assistance.

“Just let her get it out of her system,” he told Eren when all his effort to console his mother failed miserably.

The lighting was total shit but that looked an awful lot like a grin for a second.  The doctor enjoyed a sip of sadism with his sizzling burger. “Look darlin’, Ymir made brownies. Would you like some?”

Ymir? Brownies? Eren immediately shot down the suggestion. “Waitwaitwait! I’ll get her sumthin’. Don’t- don’t let her eat the brownies.”

“Eren. I told you to stop smokin’ the weed.”

“Blame Ymir!”

Out of the pit of misery, Carla swatted his butt, briefly sober. “Eren, lower your voice.”

He was so fucking close to screaming at the both of them. Instead, he inhaled deeply. “I’m getting’ another beer.”

The Were was on his, let’s say, _fifth_ beer when Ymir strode to him from the darkness of the restaurant. The place was shut down, only there for bathroom trips and ice run, but Ymir developed other uses for the place if her glowing face and smug grin was anything to go by. Plus, a painful hicky blemished her neck.

“Someone’s in a good mood,” he said into the rim of his cup.

Down for the count, Ymir scraped a chair over dirt and gravel so to regain her breath and inform Eren of her escapades.

“Woo, I need a minute,” she breathed and turned down the offer of his drink.

Even he didn’t know what the fuck it was just that it fruity and sweet. Probably a girly drink with an incriminating name to go with it but he wouldn’t be seeing many of these faces again so, hey, fuck it. He loved girl drinks.

“Sure?” Eren asked then shrugged off her refusal. “Alright. You’re missin’ out. Fucking delicious.”

A groan of pain and pleasure resounded from the woman and he couldn’t be sure if it was done to spike up the conversation or if she did get the fucking of a lifetime.

“I think I just committed seven cardinal sins in there.” From her tone, Eren knew by the end of the night all details would be publicized in graphic telling’s. Her arms cut the air, “No. Wait. Nine.” She bobbed with the accuracy of her amendment.

“Christa?” Not much of a stretch but it was best to confirm who the girl was first.

Paper lanterns danced shadows on her glossy eyes when a gust of air rocked them. There was a lost and dreamy look in them. “Ooooh. Yea.”

Small feet stampeded nosily over to them. “Dad, dad.” The redhead pulled on the boneless arm, making it flop back like a wet rag.

“Hmm?” That was as complex as his speech was going to get tonight. 

“Gran’s…I think Gran’s drunk.”

The Solo’s cup was empty at this point but habit cradled it in his hand like a full one. “A-are... are you drunk too?!”

“No. Just buzz.” And he acted like the wall behind him wasn’t a life support by rocking on the balls of his feet. Action too tiring, Eren performed a trust fall to the wall. It caught him, automatic buds for life.

Isabel wasn’t too impressed by him. She got all squinty eyed when she was ticked off. Like her mom since all Eren did when the red mask took him was glared unblinking till his eyeballs ran dry.

“Imma bit drunk,” he confessed grumpily.

“Dad.”

“It’s a party, cher.” He tossed his arms at all the clear cut signs of a party.

The back of Ymir’s chair smacked into the ground and took the sated devil with it. She didn’t get up and stargazed past their downturned faces and mapped out the Little Dipper.

“Ymir?” Isabel squealed. A familiar smell floated up Eren’s nose.

“Been drinkin’, huh?” The crippling dot of the sniper’s scope pinned Isabel’s movements.

“Ah, uh, no.”  She cupped her hands over her mouth as if she could collect it all back in.

Were or human, he smelled bullshit. “One freebie. Ya puke, ya clean it yerself, kay?”

“Seriously?”

“Enjoy it.”

“’M gunna maurry her,” Ymir said from her uncomfortable position on the floor then belched loudly but was polite enough to excuse herself. Southerners minded their manners, most times.

This seemed to give Isabel some perspective. “Maybe I’ll just have some brownies instead.”

“No brownies.”

“What the fuc-fudge,” she corrected under Eren’s unblinking eyes. “You look creepy when you do that.”

“Yea? Well your face.” He howled wildly, bending at the hip to catch his breath.

“How are you my father? Seriously?”

Eren straightened back little hardly any trouble. Maybe a few extra seconds but who gave a shit. “Not that hard. Just don’t pull out.”

“Stop, stop!” Isabel employed the old earmuff tactic and gibbered to herself. “Not listening. Not listening. Don’t wanna think about it.”

 

[x]

 

“Dat everythin’?” Ymir shouted over her shoulder, kicking one of the stubborn boxes instead of using her arms.

Eren hopped in the U-Haul trailer few seconds later and grunted a response, heaving two more cardboard boxes on top of the one Ymir placed. “Think so,” he huffed, sweating a damp streak down the back of his shirt. The metal trailer was a human sized oven.

The brunette sat on an aged metal tool box with grey steal peeled at the lock. “Damn this heat.”

“’M hearing it gonna be a hot one this year,” he said conversationally.

Ymir snorted derisively. “When isn’t it?” She pulled on the scoop of her tank and fanned herself with the fabric to alleviate some of the heat. “The hell did yer mom go?”

“Inside. Asked her for some coffee and she just,” he made a nonsensical motion with both arms, “got all pissy and told me to make it myself. I don’t get it she seemed thrilled that my ass was leavin’”

“You’re her only kid. And you’re going all the way north…” she mumbled resentfully as if Eren should feel awful for wanting a change.

 Ymir wasn’t one to admit her feelings so freely, unless they were killing off a bottle of whiskey, so she used half-heartfelt insults and indifference to communicate with the world. It’d be a month or so before his lady-killer even grew the galls to tell him that she missed him dearly.

“I’ll miss ya too,” he said for the both of them and Ymir followed it with some silence and slightly shiny eyes.

“’M sorry. You said sumthin’,” the brunette cupped a hand to her ear. “My hearing is straight shit.”

An another hour creating tracks from the house to the trailer and they’d cramped most of Eren’s and Isabel’s life into the metal lunchbox on wheels. Kinda weird to see all you value packaged and sealed into one space. Maybe there was a sting in his eyes when his father clapped his shoulder and embraced him, showing more love than he ever had, told him he was glad to see Eren become a good man. Ymir told him to keep her update if he scouted some hot tail up States. Dawn managed a few tears that surprisingly seemed, like, genuine. His mother cried on his chest then smacked him up the head, threating dismemberment and disembowelment if he failed to keep in touch.  And he believed her.

It was the first time he ever noticed a stray grey in her hair and the crow’s feet around his dad’s eyes. It crinkled a bit when the sun blared in his vision.  Dawn looked older, not in a I’m-visibly-aging way but in the I’m-a-woman sense. She did dressed slightly provocative back in high school but now she fitted the part of mother with two kids that are NOT Eren’s and a ring to shred away the baby momma title. Ymir was still that chick with a chip on her shoulder but now she could actually beat anyone’s ass from this parish to the next. And, she was oddly cute with a boy cut.

Isabel hid her red eyes behind some counterfeit shades of Gucci that Eren pawned off of Holly and cranked the radio up too loudly while she snorted her nose and stared out the window. The houses built with real planks of wood and nail blurred away to swamplands with weeping willows then to long stretches of asphalt and big ass truck with huge loads.

Colorado was a world away from his neck of the woods; this was the first time in his life he left home.  Fuck, he was nervous.

 

[x]

 

“I put my hands up, they’re playin’ my song the butterflies fly away, noddin’ my head like yea, movin’ my hips like yea!”

He wobbled out of a truck’s stop John, feeling something more than piss sticking to the back of his thighs. If he could hold it out for another hour or two, then Eren could’ve squatted somewhere decent, one that didn’t look like the backdrop to every crime scene ever. He won’t begin on the infernal smell burning his nostrils straight to hell and back.

“Yea, yea, yeaah. It’s a party in the USA!”

He pounded on the passenger’s window to get Isabel to turn back the station to something good, like Bon Jovi. But, mostly, he did it to be a douche.

The window rolled down with a dull whir and a mass of red hair leaned out the window. “Holy crap! You scared the fudge outta me.”

“Cher, hand me my cell. Kasa wanted me to check in with her.”

Isabel complained over the music, back to its original station, something bitter about dad’s being dicks and haunting him if she died of cardiac arrest.

“Here ya go, Commander Douche.” She handed the phone then re-erected the invisible barrier between them.

He pulled the old Captain Morgan posed, hiking a leg on the stepping rail and draping one arm over his mirror. Mikasa picked after three rings.

“Ain’t it my favorite Jaeger. How’s the trip?”

“My ass is numb,” he doubled checked Isabel wasn’t eavesdropping, “and I know all the words to _Wrecking Ball_. So kinda shitty.”

“Coulda took the plane.” She mused in that cynical, know-it-all sing song voice. So in short, pretty fucking annoying.

“And leave my truck with my mother? She’ll pawn it. Hell no.”  He patted the hood just to let her know daddy loved her too. A man didn’t abandon his truck.

She laughed at his disconcerting love for his colossal sized pickup truck. “Men.”

Scratching his lightly stubble chin, he mean mugged some of the less savory truck drivers that stepped out their trucks and gave him the business. One whistled at him and he felt positively violated. “So there’s a rest stop comin’ up in a few. We’ll probably stop for a bit. Don’t wanna burn out too soon.”

Not a far trip from Louisiana to Colorado, but sitting on his ass for 18 hours straight with his young adult daughter didn’t fare the best conditions.  It felt like a cage. And it was never wise to lock up two lions.

“Yea. No point in pushing it,” Mikasa agreed. There was a screech of something heavy being moved in the background. A few far off voices mumbled something quick to her before her attention was back on him. “Before I forget, I talked to Erwin. Said he can give you a job real quick once you get settled in,” she informed.

“Man, dat’s great, Kasa.”

“It’s manual labor.”

Eren shrugged. She couldn’t see it, obviously. “Fine with me.”

“Al’ight. Best to ask y’know.”

“Well I appreciate it. A lot-”

She cut him off. “Don’t get sentimental on me yet. Ya can do that when ya’ll get here.”

He guffawed, toed the dead dirt beneath his feet, eradicated from the perpetual flow of trucks and heavy footfalls. The shitty excuse for foliage wiggled with the gust from the expressway, dried and yellow. “You’ll be eatin’ your words. Watch. Tears,” he fluttered his fingers down his face, mimicking the motion of crying.

“Sure, Jaeger. Get your ass back on the road. I’ll see ya soon.”

 

[x]

 

Ass probably detached and dead where amputation might be the optimal outcome, Eren jumped out of his truck, distractedly rubbing his rear just to make it was still there. What he got was the uneasy sensation of needles prickling with the vengeance of nasty wasps. Bounding for him was a person he hadn’t laid his eyes on for over 15 years, Mikasa.

 The woman was there at the beginning of Eren Jaeger’s origin. She was the unwilling partner to Eren’s antics as a kid but that girl had an unshakeable loyalty to him. Plus she was a Were-lynx. And like Ymir, she didn’t put up with his bullshit. High school caused them to drift, Mikasa aced her marks and threw herself into music; Eren became even more of a hell raiser with the steel eating Ymir as his enabler. Mikasa won a full ride to Saint Xavier over in California and Eren, well; he had Isabel not too long after graduation.

The raven ambled over effortlessly in boots that made most models walk like baby fawns. Her hair was longer, in high school Mikasa kept a straight edged shoulder length cut. Now it spilled over one shoulder and parted to unveil her side undercut, a light fabric red shawl draped over her shoulders elegantly.  Colorado’s picturesque mountains served as her background, massive and immense as Mother Nature a pastel bluely softness blurred them behind her apartment building, silent and foreboding sentinels of these lands. If you stared keenly snow caps sprinkled their peaks.

“Eren,” she embraced him tightly and tucked her face into his chest.

He felt some dampness on his shirt but chose to spare her the grief. “Ya got old.”

The arms around his ribcage squeezed painfully till he choked with mirthful chuckles. “Kiddin’. Ladies are always just smackin’ me around. Dat’s abuse, don’t think I won’t call the sheriff. Wait-do yall have dem here?”

“Eren. Ruining the moment here,” she complained, emerging from her hiding spot, nose slightly puffed and pink. Mikasa inhaled deeply and rocked them back and forth like an awkward couple at senior prom.

Eren went with the dance, not really caring that they were out in the open for the whole world to see their tearful reunion.  “Ya should cut your hair. It’s too long.” A few loose tendrils of jet black lassoed his index finger.

“Sell your truck then.”

That turned his ass around. “Y’know I think I like it longer.”

“Exactly,” Mikasa grinned and relinquished Eren from her hold, wiping her tear ducts that certainly _weren’t_ watery.

“Cryin’?” he teased.

That earned him a hostile scowl and a shove strong enough to stagger him. Damn, he’d nearly forgotten how much of a brute she was.

 “You’re gonna leave your kid in the car?” She bobbed her head in the direction of said kid.

Isabel was spying shamelessly with the window cracked a tiny inch but at their sudden shift in conversation the young woman ducked away. Eren’s radio became one of the world’s seven wonders in that instant.

“C’mon now, cher. You’re never shy.”

Grumpily, she unbuckled her seatbelt and stepped down from the lifted truck, planted her feet on the rail and shoulders hitched in frustration, not quite taking the initiative to pull away from the safety of her father.

With all her bravo, Isabel was notoriously shy around new comers. She mumbled sassily when Eren gave her an encouraging shove. “I-I’m not…it’s not like I know her. She’s your friend.”

“Me and Mikasa talk about you all the time,” They also shared photos and video recordings through email and Skype but she didn’t really _need_ to know that.

Suddenly, her weight dropped like sag of potatoes and a great dawning narrowed her eyes. “Wait. What exactly did you tell her?”

“Everythin’.”

“Everything?!” she blanched, teeth showing and mouth opened for flies, cows had more decency. “You traitor.”

“Yea, sure, whatever. Go say hi and give her a hug.” When she didn’t budge, Eren used his fatherly voice- the one that was all menacing and dark and made pigeons soar away in fear- to _coerce_ the stubborn redhead. “ _Now, Isabel.”_

After that painful introduction which involved Isabel sulking over to the raven and half assing a greeting and a hug, they began the grueling process of unloading and unboxing everything in Mikasa’s apartment. Whatever couldn’t fit ended up in a storage unit till Eren bought a place of their own. 

A car drifted into the lot at some point later, Eren paid no mind to it and stared into the abyss of the trailer with numerous poorly sealed boxes and questioned if he could save himself the time by carrying four of them instead of three. He tried it at home, didn’t turn out so well but he liked to test his strength. And he was fucking lazy.

Not till Mikasa meandered away, hugging the mysterious driver in a way that was irrefutably romantic, did he wrench his sight on the black Buick.

Done with their quick greetings, Mikasa ushered the guy over. Then all the detail became very, very lucidly to Eren. His hair was cut in a ridiculous bowl shaped with a nose, bulbous and pointy; he was every bit of a carbon copy of Moe from the Three Stoogies. Maybe just a few inches taller and slimmer but the mental image refused to die. Marked in stone.

Being the bigger man, Eren didn’t make a single comment or jab. The moment he left however…

“Dat’s you’re boyfriend?!”

Mikasa’s icy glare wasn’t nearly powerful enough to soil his rant. “Eren.”  She was dating Moe. From the Three Stoogies, lord, he was not strong. Give him strength, please, lord.

“I said I wouldn’t cry,” he sniffed and wiped his eyes watered brimmed with mirthful tears.

“You can fucking sleep on the damn floor, Jaeger,” she hissed when he started tebowing in the parking lot, fist used as a muffler for his mouth.

Isabel broke her strong oath of silence with an unattractive snort with actual spittle flying. Mikasa’s next time to shame, she leveled her with hard black eyes. “Just like your father.”

“N-no. I’m laughin’ at him. Not-not your…your boy-“The rest died with an airy wheeze and a high five from her father. Support your kids, folks.

Moe, uh, Marlowe came back from unloading boxes and was stuck stunned by the two bodies on the floor withering. “Did…did something happen?”

Internally, Mikasa murdered them both and disposed of the bodies somewhere far and deep in the Rockies.

It took a profound amount of his will power but they all managed to get their crap out of the trailer into the apartment, and he only giggled to himself minutely whenever Moe, uh, Marlowe sustained temporary damage. Yea, he was a bad person. And, maybe, he called the guy Moe a couple times too many. But that was totally not his fault.  And beside Moe- fuck- Marlowe was pretty cool over the slip up. Mikasa not so much.

 So then he endured the hell that was Mikasa’s silent burning rage for the whole trip to a storage garage. When pleaded his case and begged for her forgiveness she told him he was an idiot - yeah, it was partially true- and that there was NO resemblance between Marlow and the iconic comedy figure. His penance was three pizzas from a comfy joint called Ziggy’s Hub with a side of Mikasa’s favorite bread sticks and cheesy sauce; by the way that sauce was additional dollar on his dime. Saints like Eren walked among the common folk.

Mikasa’s apartment had an open floor plan with shiny, sliver appliances that made Eren green with envy. And she had central air. The small guest room/office became Isabel’s temporary room because a lady needed her privacy. Eren took the futon. Not ideal for his back but Isabel’s happiness came first. Plus the plasma TV was in the living room and that promised one on one time with the remote and HD quality, and he really couldn’t argue with that deal. More TV for him.  He snapped a few pictures of the place to his mother and ordered her to upgrade already.

Isabel knocked out sometime at two a.m and Marlowe departed before they started on disc four of Supernatural. On the balcony, the grandiose mountains were peaceful with slumber. They were lounged comfortably on the futon, one on each end with their legs tangled and bent.

The recap of the previous season played when Mikasa talked to him quietly. “Bit weird, huh?”

Eren blinked through the droopiness of sleep. “What?”

“You with a kid.”

“Shoulda been there when I told my ma,” he shifted against the pillowed used to softened the hard metal armrests. The metal dug deeply no matter the position.

Mikasa smiled; the version was easy to conjure up. “She looks like you. That red hair though. All Dawn.”

“My ma said ‘I thank god every day that Isabel looks like you’”

“She’s not wrong,” the raven said.

“Man, yer a mean little shit,” he chuckled but it petered away to a yawn.

“You act like I made her that way.”

His leg jostled hers as he readjusted his position. “Christ, let’s pull it out. Ya kick me one more time and I’ll punch ya.”

Once they did that, Eren a bit more relaxed, easily slipped back into marathon mode. As kids they did just this on Fridays when it was too hot outside except it was with whatever was on TV which ended up being his mother’s soaps.

The long day had him sleepy as fuck but the show was interesting enough that he warred against sleep and her awesome bliss.

“He’s what again? He asked when one of the characters did a neat little trick by touching the forehead of one of the hunks, healing his wounds like they were never there.

“An angel. Keep up.”

He thought about what other kind of Supes like him were lurking out there, identity locked safe, not entirely as human as they seemed. It vanished quickly, he met a few others and not everybody was big on the whole supernatural brotherhood. More like you kept your oddities to your own kind.

By 1 am, he felt closer to the dead those guys in the show hunted. Guessed he couldn’t really relive his glory days. Mikasa was a bit better off and offered to save the rest of the disc for another day but he insisted one more episode.

“You’re barely awake,” she argued, already squatted at the DVD player and returning the disc to its case.

He used all his will power to peel back both his eye lids. “No. Wait. ‘M up.”

The room went black once she shut off the TV and draped a blanket over him. “Go to bed. You’re embarrassing.”

He was out before she turned the television off.

 

[x]

 

They took a few days to settle in, saw the sights and streets soon to be their home for the next few years. It’s a big city and there were thousands of scents, sounds and locations to chart. He saw faces that didn’t recur and they blurred away into the bustle just as quickly as they came, evanescent as spirits. It overwhelmed and depressed him at first; everyone was so everlasting and continuous at home. People here vanished and never returned. A fast pace for sure, one he was accustoming himself to. Plenty of small towns on the outskirts of Denver so his options were open for either life in the bustle or return to his roots.

The woods and mountains were distant but the scent of fresh pines and blooming flowers floated faintly across the distance, too weak for humans but to a Were it was mighty enough to detect. With so many people and smells tightly packed in one area, he missed how closely the woods live behind him.

But it was still so pleasant to his senses, he almost overlooked how hot and sticky his skin was a few days ago. The air was much cooler here and summer already started. He could say for sure that he wasn’t losing sleep over the lack of humid temperatures.

Mikasa showcased all her favorite shops and stores; the best places to buy groceries, convenient gas stations with fare gas prices, short cut and tips to avoid traffic on the main roads. She away in the morning and back home at four, book keeping had prime morning hours, the few odd late nights or weekends she moonlighted her passion as lead vocalist/guitarist in her band. It had a usual twist of metal with classical instruments.

She invited them to one of their shows, at an impeccable coffee and tea house pallor named Polo’s Cafe House, the owner was flexible to allow a tiny elevated platform in the corner for obscure rising bands to test out their stuff. Mikasa and her crew were regulars and a few die-hard fans loitered at the shop and greeted her with stammering praises and blushing cheeks. Marlowe arrive minutes later and sat dead front of the stage, making puppy eyes all at her as Mikasa cradled the microphone and whispered throaty lyrics into it.

Not one to sit on his ass too long, Eren tossed his body back into the grinder. Not the app. Work.

Erwin was a man too handsome to be a CEO of his own company. The blonde seemed like someone who you saw on the red carpet at a glamorous movie premier. His wife Hange worked as an on-call vet so she was toying around the office when he visited. Through his interview, they bonded over the woes of manual labor and the strain known as growing children. Eren worried over Isabel’s developing wild streak, though she wasn’t as bad as him, and Erwin lamented over Armin turning into a couch-potato. Nose in the books for he was grateful for but Armin had no interest in taking over the pride.

Yeah, pride, Mikasa failed to mention how Colorado was the place to be for a Were. Acres of forests, crayons, rivers, and mountains to burrowed oneself in; a great place to go off the radar. Cities didn’t make prime real estate for folks like them.

Erwin offered an array of work and shifts to accommodate workers and kept his business well and thriving. Plus, with the economy and the number of graduates with no job experience, it provided income for those looking to get back on their feet. A few days later and Eren was backing to doing almost the same thing as back home, just on a larger scale. Not all job were located purely in Denver, lots of work was done on main city roads or private estates in the suburbs. It locked him in his truck for a few hours on some days but the long drives and the freshness of the pines made it pleasurable. And Erwin paid well, most jobs this unwanted usually were. Nobody wanted to push their body day in and out. People sought out clerical work with air conditioning and a short commute from home.

Being outside and working himself to an early grave actually excited Eren, made him centered and calm. The benefits of a lean and insanely buffed form didn’t hurt either.

Nearly a month later, his cell rang underneath his pillow and by the ringtone; he knew it was his boss.

Granted it was his day off when Erwin called him in but the fact being he didn’t have much to do in Colorado, he agreed anyway. He’d probably get off with taking his day as planned but time wasted not earning a living was more time on Mikasa. And he hated putting her out like this, regardless of what she said.

Unlike back home where something needed his tending, like Ymir’s sore ex-girlfriends/one-night stands stalking him out and demanding exactly why that she-devil wasn’t picking up any of their calls. Or Dawn filling up his voice mails because Isabel ran off after another argument and Eren best not be hiding her. That girl needs a talking to and you’re too damn soft, she’d rant. No mother with a long list of chores on appliances that required tweaking. He really didn’t have too much on his off hours to occupy him

Secretly, he kinda missed it all.

Erwin picked him up 30 minutes later and they drove over two hours to a town called Buena Vista. A friend of a friend called belatedly and wondered if Erwin could make the trip to down one of the trees that rotting away and presenting a hazard to their grandkids. A tree nestled far beyond their cleanly mowed backyard. The lady said she couldn’t bother with a fence as her grandkids liked to escape the house and investigate the woods. She escorted them over while Erwin and her exchanged pleasantries.

“I heard Armin just graduated,” she said. “Does he plan on continuing his education?”

“I’m afraid he would fight me on the matter if I said otherwise.”

“That’s good to hear. More children should care about their education…Well this is it. Heavens know why it dying but I just can’t have it sitting back here when everything looks ready to snap off.” She pointed out one of the many teetering branches that hung determinedly by the skin of their teeth.

Even without the blatant signs of sickness, the pungent scent wrinkled his nose. Some diseases were easy fixes but this one had been ill for so long it was past anyone control. The elderly woman left after Erwin assured her that the job won’t take too long to complete.

Eren squinted upward and calculated which branches to cut down first. It was fucking tall, not too thick so hopefully he wouldn’t be up there for hours with the chainsaw; he tugged on the harness and secured the buckles. Time to get to work.

Three hours in and Eren needed to pee. Erwin couldn’t ease him down fast enough and tore deeper into the woods to find a remote spot to do his business.

Procuring a bush, Eren unzipped his jeans and hissed in relief. His eyes were closed, cause usually when you go to take a piss in the woods it was a little one on one time and you’re not really expecting company.

But company came much silently and swifter than his senses normally pick up. So he was a bit, um, startled when he glanced downward and saw _it_.

“Holy fuckin-fuck!” He jolted back in surprise. A yellow stream wavered dangerously close to his boots.

 Erwin had a good laugh at that. “Snuck up on you, eh?”

It wasn’t polite to stare, his mother taught him that, and Erwin was a married man with a wife and kid. But, fuck, wow, and that was coming from a bisexual gay, who favored men mostly so, yea. Good for Erwin.

“Thought it was a gator for a sec,” he admitted, hoping that unabashedly punching the elephant in the room would teach him to stop fucking staring. “Sorry. I. Um- yeah. No offense.”

Actually, he was feeling a bit inferior.

“No, no. It’s fine. I have a bad habit of it.”

Did he want to know? “What?”

“I’m sorry. That probably came out very unclear. My pride, we are conditioned to just bare all.” Erwin explained, apparently quite comfortable with Eren’s frequent petering peeks. “My wife had the same reaction. I’m rather large.”

Um, yeah, he _noticed_.

Eren flushed, downright mortified at how blatant his glimpses were. “I am so, so, sorry. Please. Wow. Like I’m not a pervert but some guys ain’t cool with the bi thing.” His voice was wobbly, fucking shitting out literally anything that came to mind.

“I like to think a person’s sexuality doesn’t have anything to do with who they are. If anything, I’m flattered a man finds me appealing. Must mean I’m doing something right.”

He deflated a bit, shoulders slumping with the physical relief at his rudeness slipping away.

“Bit of a load off, then?”

“Yes,” Eren sighed gratefully.

Folks weren’t always so pleasant about such things back home, despite all the bullshit about southern hospitality. He kind of got why Mikasa insisted on Eren taking a job with him. All around, Erwin was a good guy, a hard worker and a Were; qualities that were rare to come by.

They stopped chatting enough to give two courtesy shakes and zipped up, walking down the same path back to the tree.

“Mikasa told me a lot about you. I’m afraid I pushed her into introducing us.” Erwin said this with his back to Eren but his keen hearing picked the word as easily as if he spoke them into his ear.

“Dat so?” Eren hummed suspiciously, watching Erwin for further information.

Smart predators didn’t keep their backs venerable; being face to face with Erwin again reinstated the difference in their physical stature.  Truthfully, Eren never grew past 5’8 but football and work filled him out everywhere else. To anyone else, Eren looked outlandishly ripped, creating that perfect movie star body every man bleed for and every woman lusted after. He certainly wasn’t as wide and huge as the other lion but he could pose a fight but winning it was another debate. Eren’s younger self would eat shit before admitting there wasn’t any fight he couldn’t win- that was parenthood right there.

“I swear my intentions aren’t sinister.” The blonde smiled disarmingly, recognizing how ominous his previous statement came off.  “Please relax.”

Reflexively, Eren’s defenses reared up. A good distance established between them, his body rigid and lined for an attack, all red flags of an animal on edge. Gold ambushed the natural state of his eyes, rounding out and narrowing them terrifyingly.

Erwin made the effort to appear less threating, not an easy task for man 6 feet tall with at least 90 pounds of muscle over Eren. A life with a pride obviously trained the man on how to handle unhinged lions.

His mouth swelled with sharp fangs but he didn’t exhibit them. “Sorry,” came out gravelly from his aching jaw, he retracted their overwhelming size.

“No. You’re in a new area with no pride members and you have a cub to protect. Most lions would be on guard. So your sentiments are understandable,” he assuaged in a placating tone.

Erwin made no sudden moves and he was probably more observant than Eren thought. Like he knew Eren’s short fuse and the great length he’d take to protect his family. Being a Were never promised a safe life.

He breathed through the knotted tension in his belly, commanded his body to retake his human form completely. Anger had it vines wrapped around him his whole life and time taught him control, but it didn’t diminish the lash of heat whenever it whipped him.

Mother Nature’s music loosened the threads and steadied his heart. In the time it took for him to get back to himself, Erwin never once huffed impatiently or paced irritably. Maybe he could teach him a thing or two.

“So?” he prompted, edge gone. The Were felt a bit childish at the display of aggression.

“My father was a Were,” Erwin started, “He started a pride not too long before I was born. Had a sizable group. But Colorado has array of treacherous terrain and wildlife. And most threating to our kind, poachers.”

The gears in his head got on track with his thoughts. “Yea. We got that back home. But we lived pretty far off to avoid runnin’ into our neighbors.”

“I wouldn’t be surprise. But our woods are much larger. Hunting season brings in a lot of people besides the usual hiker, campers, rangers. And that means traps and guns. My father underestimated this and it didn’t take long for members of the pride to come out wounded or, worse, dead. Luckily, rumors of Weres don’t get too much traction. But it caused panic and resentment in the pride. Fights broke out constantly. Other lions challenged my father. It was more than he could take at the time. So it was disbanded.”

“Dat’s tough,” he sympathized.  Home was too small for prides, so all of this was new to him but it sounded exhausting.

“Seeing my father struggle taught me the pitfalls. One way I do that is to bring in strong, stable lions into the pride. I am the king of my pride but it doesn’t guarantee loyalty. Lions like you act as my right hand, keep the rebels in line and your experience can keep the pride safe.”

“Basically, I’m your muscle.”

“Essentially. But a pride is a family. You and your cub will be protected and have an open land to shift. My rule is strict but I have very few accidents because of it. Levi, Annie and Mike do a fine job of patrolling and rerouting our land, keeping the lions in line.”

 “And dat is?”

“My sentries. They are ‘top cats’ right next to me and possibly you,” Erwin answered.

“Awfully confident,” the young lion muttered.

A lot could be said about  Erwin, not much from Eren since the whole lack of experience with him, but the confidence the older lion exuded wasn’t mistaken for arrogance. Plenty of men could talk themselves up, few can prove it.  Erwin probably did both without much strain.

God, was he really considering this?

“Running a pride has made me a good judge of lions. You would be a great addition to our family.” He sure knew how to sell it.

“Yer pretty good at this,” he conceded reluctantly.

The older lion offered him a gentleman’s shake and squeezed hard. “That’s what my wife said when I asked her out. I tend to get what I want.”

He squeezed just as hard back just to give the old fella a taste of his strength. “I ain’t no fat tabby. Dat’s your only warnin’.”

“Mr. Jaeger that’s exactly what I’m hoping for.”

 [x]

“So I should explain the process of joining our pride,” Erwin began.

Hange, Erwin’s wife and the pride’s queen, greeted Eren and Isabel at the impromptu lot of parked cars. Judging by how eaten and bare of greenery, he figured this was a common spot for all the members to park their vehicles safely without drawing too much attention. She ushered them over to Erwin who told them the rest of the pride was aware of their initiation and started them down the trail to the lodge.

“As much as you might want to, don’t shift.”

Eren stood in his tracks. “What?”

“Oh yea. That’s a big no-no for your first day,” Hange butted in, sun glared off her square frames. “Last time that happened, it was a total blood bath. It took all of us: me, Erwin, Levi, Annie, Mike to stop the fighting.”

His mouth popped open incredulously and Isabel mimicked her father and pressed closer to his side. He tossed a cautionary glare to Erwin. “Thought ya said ya don’t have many accidents.”

“Please, Hange,” He did a palms-up. “My wife,” he pursed his lips at her mention, “has a thing for exaggeration. It wasn’t nearly as chaotic as she makes it seem.”

“Excuse me but my bloody nose is not an exaggeration,” she huffed at her husband and crossed her arms over her chest.

Hange leaned over conversationally to Eren and groused, “Did you know that prick gave Mike a shiner? Mike! Like seriously. Mike who donates a portion of his check to a charity for blind cats.”

Getting sidetracked, Eren and Isabel cooed, “Aw. Poor kitties.”

“Thank you. That’s my point. But that guy isn’t a part of pride anymore.  Unrelated, he threw another brawl and challenged Erwin as king.”

“You can do that?”

“Sweetheart,” Erwin said in a sweet tone that wasn’t at all sweet.

“Oh!” She stopped. “Sorry. Got so distracted with gossiping.”

The eccentric queen cleared her throat and stood properly.  “Look, I’ll lay it down for you, Eren,” the brunette took charged, literally pushing her gigantic husband aside and claiming his spot. “Don’t do shit. M’kay? They’ll sniff you. And yea, maybe one of them will try to smack you around. But usually. Usually that’s it. You’re in. If shit hits the fan, Levi and Mike will step in and back you guys up. We crystal?”

“Let me get this straight, yer tellin’ me I can’t shift at all?”

Hange’s face scrunched inward in deep thought. “Uhhhh. In the first ten minutes, no. But after that, go ahead.”

“Hange.” Erwin chided.

She sighed. “Okay, okay. Let’s make your first day a no shift day. Get the pride used to your smell and such.” She clapped her hands then turned to her peeved hubby. “Good, honey?” She didn’t wait for him to answer and strutted passed, planting his cheek with a kiss. “Great. Let’s go.”

The older lion simply watched his wife happily ambled deeper into the forest, voice humming and jean shorts bleached white from prolonged sun exposure, in a state of loss or maybe regret. Eren clapped his back in sympathy.

“My baby mama kinda like that. I figured its best just to go along with it and shut it.”

Isabel agreed. “True. It’s how we ladies are, Mr. Smith.”

“Yea. Don’t get me goin’ about this one,” he hinted with his eyes not so subtly rolling to his daughter.

In retaliation, the redhead elbowed him.

Trees brought up his flanks and rear and the hung over them with thick branches, some beautifully flowered with pink, red blossoms. Others were shaded with ruby leaves. The path diverted from a mapped trail and ventured deep into the belly of Mother Nature, lively foliage rose from the earth and brushed at their hips. They fully absorbed them into the wild and severed off all connections to human civilization.  

Every inch of her appearing as the Americanize version of Lara Croft, Hange was at the head of the group as she expertly navigated the terrain. At her back was an animated Erwin who conversed with the two new lions as they listened intently to his words with open interest and apprehension. Erwin was detailing the spark notes version of the pride’s workings.

 Typically, the pride had two scheduled meet ups per month at Erwin’s discretion. All are welcomed to shift in Erwin’s territory with or without his presence in attendance. Hunts weren’t granted without his sanction and they happened usually with the entire pride. Elks were the animal of choice as their numbers reached overpopulations quite often. Deviations happened on occasions for celebration. Any wildlife listed on the endangered list or neared the requirements was off limits.

 If you encountered another predator, run. Do not fight, Erwin commanded. _Even our ancestors knew to pick their battles and live, we do the same- we honor them by doing the same._

 The pride stuck to the most remote areas of Rio Grande’s National Forest. The motto was keep our existence to humanity a myth. If knowledge of African lions living in Colorado’s backyard came out eager hunters and poachers far and wide would flock for the opportunity to hunt like thrilling game. And a sighting happened, go to Erwin immediately. The sentries would go to work remapping and remarking the land and set up new borders.

Eren’s head was buzzing with all the new rules and information. Back home, they never had anything as complicated as _don’t get eaten by a gater, Eren_.  Wearing his emotions, Erwin assured him that it was okay for slip ups like this to happen and as long as the head members were aware then he wouldn’t face grim punishment. Punishments ranged from suspension from visiting and shifting in the territory to banishment and excommunication from the entire pride.

Excommunication, banishment? The lion wasn’t joking when he called his ruling strict but it guaranteed safety and the longevity of the pride.

Through the trees a lodge came into view along with the heavy aroma of lion. Numerous lions, more than he had ever encountered at once in his whole lifetime. Instinctively, he halted and gripped Isabel to his side. Erwin was speaking methodically over the duties him and his wife had as king and queen. He caught the gist of Hange guiding the lionesses and Erwin over the lions before the lion reared him

“Hange,” Erwin stopped.

She banked on the mouth of the clearing and the pride beyond her grunted with recognition.  “I’ll talk to everybody. Make sure Levi is close. Take as long as you need.”

Eren couldn’t steal his eyes away when the pride encircled Hange, many bumped and rubbed her legs like regular housecat, a few others nearly toppled her to the ground when they threw their weight on her shoulders. Cubs clawed at her distressed boots, mindful of the bigger members, but persisted to receive the queen’s love.  She plucked one up and the cub hugged her face close by imprisoning her with its paws and vigorously scenting her. The act reminded him of Isabel as a cub and squeezed her close.

No matter what, Eren would protect her. Didn’t matter if the clearing had a thousand lions, she was his heart.

Isabel allowed him to shield her. Something she’d normally swat away and bitch about. But this wasn’t Louisiana. Gran and Pa were states away.

“Eren,” the king called him and he pried his sight away from the dozen of eyes curiously scanning their direction.  “I swear on my father’s grave no harm will come to you or your daughter. My best will watch over you.”

Canines extended, Eren searched the king’s blue eyes for reassurance and confidence. His keen hearing picked up the pride’s call, groans and whines, he wasn’t certain if it was for him or the king.

“I can’t let you enter with you shifting, Eren. It’s taken as an assault on the pride and I cannot overrule their feral instinct to defend.”

He knew this. It was the first rule they told him at the beginning but seeing the pride- hearing them, smelling them- it was like someone shoot up his veins with pure, unadulterated adrenaline. Erwin wasn’t family though. Even with his words that sounded true and factual, his only flesh and blood trembled subtly next to him.

It came; hot and angry like a gator snapping out the swamp for a clueless buck. He might’ve lunged for his throat was not for Isabel sinking her claws into his forearm. Like a sailboat lost at sea with a lighthouse as it only salvation, Eren focused on her.

“Daddy,” she said gently. “Dis is one of those times where I’m the grown up and you’re the child.”

To anyone passing, they might scream at the terrifying scene of a half man, half lion held down by a small girl. She was still human all around except for her hands, black curved claws created holes of indented skin in between the bulging muscles; tawny fur enclosed the flat of her hand.

“Got me, dad?” Isabel asked.

He nodded, protruding canines overlapped his bottom lip; it was difficult to talk without nicking himself. So he opted for silence. “Good. I’m gonna sing to ya. Remember when I get blue and you sang to me well I’m just gonna sing to myself till you join me.”

_“_ I’m sailin’ away, set an open course for the virgin sea. I’ve got to be free, free to face the life dat’s ahead of me,”the redhead sang.

“On board, I’m the captain, so climb aboard. We’ll search for tomorrow on every shore. And I’ll try, oh Lord, I’ll try to carry on.”

“-I look to the sea, reflections in the waves spark my memory. Some happy, some sad. I think of childhood friends and the dreams we had,” Eren continued, tension unlatching its unyielding grip.

Several inches shorter than him, Isabel grinned up triumphantly. “We’ll live happily forever so the story goes. But somehow we missed out on that pot of gold. But we’ll try the best dat we can to carry on.”

“A gathering of angels appeared above my head. They sand to me this song of and this is what they said.”

“They said comesail away, come sail away. Come sail away with me,” Eren finished.

“Better?” she asked.

It was one of those the student became the master moments and it oddly made him want to tear up a bit. It was a trick his mother passed on to him; whenever Isabel was blue he’d scooped her up and sang whatever songs crossed his mind till the hiccupping tears retreated and nothing but a smile softened Isabel’s face.

“Thank you, cher.”

“No problem. You owe me a car now.”

A blonde that Eren only seen through photos trotted up the path and even without prior references, it became clear that the kid could only be Erwin’s. Their shade of locks and eyes were near identical they could be easily mistaken for brothers, if you ignored the enormous age gap.

Cheeks pinks from the jog, Armin spoke to his father, “Is everything alright?”

“Yes. I was going over a few details with Eren here.” He realized then Erwin covered for his little freak out and directed an indebted smile to the king. Wordlessly, Erwin inclined his head in return. “How is the pride?”

“Eager, I guess.  The lionesses appear excitable the least. But the lions…” He allowed the quiet to fill in the blanks.

“But what?” Isabel asked and intercepted the tiny bubble shared between the two blondes.

Her sudden question jarred Armin’s attention. Inexplicably, his skin reddened for another reason. “Oh. Uh. Well the lions typically get anxious when new members join the pride. Another lion breeds competition and fear in them.”

“Oh? I didn’t know dat.”

Armin shrugged reservedly and did his best to not eyeball Isabel’s form up and down. “Well, I kinda study the pride. It sounds weird. Like their lab rats or something. But I believe learning the social queues and behaviors of a pride benefit the management of it.”

“Dat’s sounds kinda neat. Ya gonna study me too?”

“I just observe everyone really. I don’t like to be invasive.”

“Armin,” Erwin clapped his shoulder. “This is Eren Jaeger and his daughter Isabel.”

“Sir.” Armin jerked his hand out in greeting.

He took the offered hand firmly just to spike the fear of god in the boy.

“Armin Smith, Mr. Jaeger,” he said like the fact wasn’t clear to Eren. Or maybe he knew Eren caught him looking at his baby girl.

But his mean mugged didn’t last very long with the way Armin fidgeted under his perusal. To his credit, he didn’t scurry away like Eren assumed. “Take it easy, son. I prefer just Eren, mkay?”

Armin had his doubts. “Yes, Mr. Jeager. I’m sorry, I mean, Eren.”

“Ya shouldn’t fuss too much over my dad. He’s a kitten on the inside,” Isabel comforted because the young lion was still spook to the core.

“Don’t say dat. I have power here. Dis is power.”

“You sound like nine kinds of crazy.”

“So, is it safe to assume you are both more at ease then. Are you ready to begin, Eren?”

He scanned over Erwin’s shoulder; golden bodies only witnessed in the wild or zoo loitered about. Few lions matched his gaze, hazel and brown eyes securitizing in a way only big cats mastered. Thoughtful, emotionless, and calculating.

If he was going to be a part of this pride then he needed to put his faith in Erwin as the others did. Their numbers were alarming so Erwin was doing something right to come this far. Eren exhaled, willing all his instincts and visceral urge to fight to float away just as easily.

Eren straightened, anger extracted and firmly chained. “Yea.”

The king led them into the lion’s den.

 

[x]

 

The terrain evened out at the mouth of the clearing, the sun embraced him more warmly and the wind brushed his bangs over his eyes. His hair had gotten long. Ma personally attended to its upkeep since he was too lazy to make an appointment with the local barber shop. Eren imagined his mother and how she’d approach this situation and it’d be in her usual spitting fireballs fashion, giving anyone lip that gave her trouble.

 It was easier to plant the next step, easier to allow nature’s goodness drowned his senses. The wildflowers were at their peak and their petals carried the most lustrous shade humanly possible. They perfumed the earth with heavenly sweetness. One of them was a lavender bush and he spotted it across the clearing, healthy and oddly-shaped but still full of life.

The lodge pressed to the line of the trees and the wood grain matched the color of the one planted all around it. At night, it’d probably merged seamlessly with the bark. It looked large and expensive like those high class ones that utilized as ski resorts in Aspen.

He traced the line of trees; the pride lay in the grass and observed his approach, whiskers twitched as they tasted his scent. Round ear dipped at the tip with black flickered as obstinate flies buzzed by.

“Dad,” Isabel whispered.

Eren interlocked their hands and squeezed. “’M here, cher.”

“M’kay,” she nodded once, twice to appease the butterflies in her gut.

The grass was trodden down; a patch of dirt had the imprint of an animal. Massive with round pads. Movement too fast to follow happened in the corner of his peripheral. Whatever caused it vanished with the same speed. It left only the leaves quaking in fear.

The king halted them. They’re at the center of the clearing and the slumbering lions yawned and climbed to their feet.

Fanning out, the youngest cubs scampered over, innocent and care-free in a manner only a child had. Mother lionesses’ circled next, wary and guarded with their cubs so near the new lions. One rolled on his side and batted at Isabel’s boot then gnawed on the offensive object, kicking out his rear legs. Nails snagged minutely till they lost its grip. Some grew tired at how inanimate their new pride mates were and sought play from each other.

The larger and older members came next; they gauged and sized them but nothing more. As far as they were concerned, Eren and Isabel presented no real threat. From the ground, they blinked at their king and at his nod; they drifted off for shade from the sun.

It was adolescents turn. The lionesses’ seemed interested in Isabel; one with honey eyes and lanky built chueffed at Isabel’s palm then licked tentatively. Isabel turned and reached out; fingers brushed the lioness’s cheek.  Before she could repeat the gesture, the lioness was shoved away by another and they snapped and snarled at each other till one retreated. But Isabel stood strong and commanded her own fright and fury.

Focus entirely on Isabel, Eren lost track on the young adult lions. More children than men, tuffs of pale fur lined the middle of their spine to the chest. They looked like cats after a bath with those tiny excuses for manes. Eren had been there once, he knew that phrase from teenage to adult was hard, your mane as an external extension of your strength and power.

 They barged in close, too close for it not to appear anything else but a threat. More brazen ones mock charged at him canines flashed but stopped an inch from his feet, kicked up dirt billowed around them. Instinctively, Eren shielded his cub from the fake out and puffed his chest out, a low, menacing growl rumbled out from his chest cavity. And the reckless cub yipped anyway, head bowed and hid beside his mother.  She didn’t nurse his ego and swatted in reprimand.

During all the madness, two lions and one lioness had lined up at Erwin’s heel, silent and observant.  They’re the sentries. The supreme force behind the king. Top cats, Erwin said. He didn’t doubt those words, especially now.

The sentries walked over, the eldest lion with mane as dark as bark taking point.  A thickly muscled lioness flanked his right and the light colored lion the left.

Nose to Eren’s palm, the dark lion sniffed as his flat nose twitched. Humor lit his eyes and he stepped away, the evaluation over rather uneventfully. Eren decided that was the closest thing to endorsement the lion gave.

Dark lion nosed Erwin’s downturn palm and settled lazily on his belly as his eyes closed tiredly like an old man.

The lioness managed to be cryptic and unreadable with her gestures. She didn’t lean forward for a taste of their scent but didn’t pass over too hastily. Fully accepting Eren and Isabel, she reclaimed her place by the king.

The light lion was different. Something more than simple curiosity had him fixed on Isabel. He was mindful to distance himself from Eren, the low snarl directed at him made it clear Isabel was under his protection. No alarm flared from his daughter so Eren checked the parental warnings buzzing under his skin. It wasn’t just him joining the pride and she needed the chance to establish herself as a lioness. A over bearing papa lion would just hinder that.

For the first time since they’ve entered the den, Isabel let go of his hand. Knelt down on one knee and snared the lion’s eyes.  Then she offered him her scent, palm down.

He stepped forward then caught himself, Eren’s stern glare radiated hostility. Yes, she had to grow as a woman and as a lioness but shit, that was his cher.

She pinched the sour scowl at Eren till he toned it down.

The lion strolled to her unhurriedly, whether for her or Eren’s benefit, he wasn’t sure. Gust of hot air tickled across her hand.  She almost felt his weightless whiskers.

The air solidified with dark emotions and dangerous roars. Suddenly, the warmth in front of her was wrenched so abruptly she didn’t have time to flinch away.

A brawl that was all Eren needed to know, he placed Isabel to his back. With the rapid swipes and charges, it was difficult to pin point which lion was which. Till one lion was pinned down and fumbled to cover his exposed throat and belly, canting his body on the side.

A heavy body barreled into the lion so quick he could only decipher the colors black, orange and white. Shaken by the hit, the lion stumbled for balance but no time was allowed for that. The same power that overpowered him, hauled him off his paws and on his side by the scruff of the neck. When the lion submitted and cowered and the miasma of tension and frenzy settled, Eren finally saw _it._

A tiger.

The display of his sharp, long fangs freighted the lion and he sunk into himself, ear flat against his crown. The earth vibrated under his mighty roar. Eren felt it penetrated deep to his bones, rattling him. This tiger looked as if it was born out of the jungle, bestial and majestic as the tigers that roamed the tall golden fields in Africa.  Lion may be the monarchs of their kingdoms but tigers were the dreadful dragon that scorched their lands and left children and maiden horrified and awed.

The tiger didn’t cease till Erwin commanded it, “Levi.”

Levi turned, body still atop of the lion, and snorted at the king. “I understand your concern. I will deal with it shortly. But right now we are trying to make a good impression.”

Brilliantly arctic cobalt eyes darted to the defeated lion. Levi communicated something with a flash of teeth and a low rumble to the lion and slinked over him. His shoulders blades dipped and raised like tides of water, orange fur struck by black lightning stripes.

Eren heard of other Weres, knew a few but this was a first. Tigers were as big as rarity as they were now in the wild. It was impossible not to be rendered breathless by the creature. Foolishly, Eren wanted to extend out and learn all the patterns on his body.

He seemed intent to go past Eren and Isabel without a second thought but Levi paused. And Eren felt something more than just muted curiosity wash down his body. The tiger dissected him inch by inch till he reached his eyes. He didn’t know what message Levi was sending as he was too distracted and thunder struck by the black designs on his forehead.

The tiger huffed and his lips twitch for a fraction of a second. If Eren didn’t know any better, he could’ve swore the tiger just smirked at him.

 

[x]

“One hell of a rodeo.”

Weariness lined the king’s face as Erwin sighed, “I’m sorry you had to see all that. I put too much faith in my young lions as they clearly can’t put aside their differences for one day.”

“Dem the little shits givin’ you trouble?”

He messaged his temples. “Yes. Sadly, Samuel and Farlan skirmishes started after I chose Farlan as my new sentry. They were civil before but…”

“Yea. Ain’t so civil now,” Eren mused. “And the lionesses.”

“Hitch and Sasha,” he answered. “My wife likes to call Hitch is our problem child.” He laughed dryly.

“Erwin,” a new voice chimed in suddenly. It was one of the sentries, the lioness.

He instructed Hange to drive the pride further into the grasslands while they discussed his new job position as sentry. So the clearing was empty except for them and the sentries.

“Annie,” Erwin started placidly, already picking on the lioness’ ire.

“Don’t start. Hitch’s malfunction isn’t my problem. My daughter is,” Annie argued. Her clothes were tossed on in haste after the dismal, the tag of her shirt peeked out the back and the seams were visible. The other lions and Levi were in the lodge, changing into a set of clothes. “I’m coming to you first out of respect. But if she lands a hand on Sasha, I will not stand aside.”

“She’s not dumb enough to do that.”

“Mike,” the petite blonde rolled her eyes. “Not now.”

“Hange is speaking to her right now. We’ll continue this privately.”

“Fine. I’m just making my position known.” Annie resigned, sounding slightly edged but non-confrontational.

A man with tousled dark blonde hair and shaggy bread grinned not even affronted in the least. “Well now, Eren. Welcome to the club. I’m Mike. That sour puss is Annie-“At that, she flipped the bird. “That’s Farlan and Levi.” Mike pointed at the two emerging figures leaving the lodge.

 Of the two men, the platinum blonde was slender and tall. The guy next to him pulled him to a stop, examined his neck and collar bones for fresh lacerations then clapped his shoulder. Something mirthful curled both their mouths.

Instantly, he tasted the tiger’s scent as they joined the group. He was too preoccupied in the act of staring longer than socially acceptable that he totally missed segments of the group’s conversation. But he heard a comment from Mike.

“Cat got your tongue, Church,” Mike looked unashamed of the pun and basked contentedly; the other sentries did not share his humor.

“Your cat jokes are just the worst,” Annie groused after a tiny interval of silence as everyone ingested that bit.

 “Mike. Seriously?” Farlan groaned miserably, barely casting an eye at either Isabel or Eren. Farlan’s cheeks are noticeably pink and so were his cher.

 “Fucken dag,” Levi said and, _Jesus,_ he had a scrumptiously foreign accent, thick and dark as tar.

His mind conjured that voice whispering much more indecent things low in his ear; mercy, he could burn on the spot.

“Yur the new bloke, then?”

Hand out to him, Eren could no nothing but _stared_ owlishly because, holy fuck, Levi smelled like those long grueling summers when the sun never set; not like Louisiana’s heat wet and sticky with sweat on your collarbones but dry, unforgiving heat that choked the air in your lungs. It blistered and burned you from the inside out.

 “My stars…you’re the first tiger I ever seen…” And now everyone was raising their brows at him like he grew a second head.

“Uh…” Levi mumbled; unlike his tiger form, his eyes were slanted and a hue of unearthly metallic as if mined raw from the earth’s crust.  Moisture pooled on his body, a stray bead of sweat made a nasty, slick path from Levi’s neck to the valley between firm pecs. The magnetism from the creature resonated still like a beating heart to him. Ere felt that primal power, the draw, all over again like a wicked spirit.

And his hand hung out awkwardly in the air, waiting on him to complete the human greeting.

Eren broke from the stupor and tried to act like the cognitive adult he was.  “Shit! Sorry... I should be …more formal. Uh, hello,” the new lion offered his hand bashfully, “name’s Eren Jaeger. Dis here’s my kid, Isabel.”

At some point, he shook it because he had manners and he kind of wanted an excuse to touch Levi. He dutifully ignored how callous and strong Levi’s hands were and the way they‘d feel crawling down his sides to his arousal, fingers wrapping and tightening around him as he pumped.

Okay, admittedly, he wasn’t trying that _hard_.

“Uh. Levi,” he waved and stared at him unblinkingly that it kind of freaked Eren out a bit. “You got sum bloody green eyes.”

“T-thank you,” Eren saw one of the buttons on Levi’s jean popped open to a hairy trail dipping past the waistband.  “Yer accent?”

“Astrayan. And no I’m not sayin’ any bloody Steve Irvin lines.”

“Oh no! I meant its nice dat all. Really nice.” Fuck he was flirting, badly. The fuck was his malfunction, seduction wasn’t necessarily his best subject but he never suffered through it.

When he spoke the cadence of his accent was much richer and thick as if done deliberately to send Eren’s heart fluttering, “Not bad.”

Oh god, maybe the rocky mountain would explode with fantastic display of molten lava and sprays of hellfire and put Eren out of his misery. He looked at the scenic boulders of grey sediment- silent and therefore fucking useless.

_Please explode._

It didn’t.

Thankfully the silence that hibernated by his fantastically bad flirting was broken by the queen who hollered her reentrance with a whoop.

Hange jumped in, a bit winded with honey cat eyes, and read the mood. “Damnit, I missed something good right? Good shit goes down the moment I leave.”

Shifting to cross her arms over her chest, Annie’s blank face split with a sarcastic grin. “If you consider awkward foreplay good then yea, you’ve missed the best part.”

 Erwin cleared his throat casually and glanced at his wife’s thinly masked Joker smile.

“I hate to cut in,” Eren snapped out of whatever dumbass look he was giving Levi, “but I’m sure the rest of the pride would like to be formally introduced to our new pride mates. In human terms.”

Levi turned to Erwin. “Me and Farlan are goin’ walkabout anyway. He had a bit of a blue in the west.”

“One time,” Farlan grumbled to himself. “And he never lets it go.”

“That’s fine. Eren will need training. One less lion to teach.”

He looked back to Eren, “Be seein’ ye, Eren.”

In the words of Sir Mix A lot, Eren was fucking _sprung_.

**Author's Note:**

> i actually loved writing this Eren and hopefully you guys did too. and the father-daughter relationship was too much to pass up as a background decoration. 
> 
> your kudos, comment, etc make me swoon.
> 
> links for Australian slang:
> 
> http://www.koalanet.com.au/australian-slang.html#D
> 
> http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/AustralianAccent


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